By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – In an effort to keep out illegal migrants, Israel will build a barrier wall in two sections along its southern border with Egypt. The announcement was made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference on January 10.

 

Israel has become a new “promised land” of opportunity for many refugees from war-torn countries in northeast Africa, with border crossings increasing over the past several weeks. In recent years, thousands of undocumented migrants have crossed in Israel through its southern border. Eritrea is the most common country of origin for migrants crossing into Israel from Egypt, followed by Ethiopia and Sudan.

 

International human rights observers have strongly criticized practices by Egyptian border officials; many migrants attempting to cross into Israel have either been shot dead by Egyptian border guards or detained in Egyptian prisons before being sent back to their home countries. This violates the standards set out in the United Nations Convention on Refugees.

 

Israel’s border with Egypt spans 226 kilometers, and Israeli officials estimate the construction will take approximately two years to complete. The border wall will not cover the length of the Israeli-Egyptian border, the initial construction will focus on the area near the Israeli city of Eilat and the area near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip near the town of Rafah.

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel would “remain open to refugees” but said that Israel “cannot let tens of thousands of illegal workers infiltrate into Israel through the southern border and inundate our country with illegal aliens.” Netanyahu added the decision was one “to secure Israel’s Jewish and democratic character.”

 

Egyptian officials said they had not been notified of Israel’s decision to build a wall, but that they did not object, so long as the wall was built on Israeli soil.

 

Approximately fifty to sixty percent of Israel’s borders are already walled in, according to Alon Liel, a professor at the University of Tel Aviv. Israel has built walls along its borders with Lebanon, Jordan, most of the West Bank, and all of the Gaza Strip.

 

“It is a very unpleasant feeling, but for the Israeli public the alternative to not having a fence seems worse,” said Professor Liel.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Al Jazeera – Israel Plans Wall for Egypt Border – 11 January 2010

 

Ma’an News Agency – Israel to Build Wall Along Egyptian Border – 11 January 2010

 

Palestine News Network – Israel to Construct Barrier Along Egyptian Border – 11 January 2010

 

Ha’aretz – Israel to Build NIS 1.5b Fence Along Egypt Border – 10 January 2010